Mute Doodle Den

Stanisław “Staś” Dovganyuk is a thirteen-year-old autistic poet in Szczecin, Poland, whose voice lives on the page instead of in sound. Born to a Polish father and a Japanese mother, he endured abuse at home during his earliest years before entering foster care at age five.

In those first months, he discovered that words on paper could become lifelines—tiny poems sketched on scraps to name fear, cling to hope, and carve out a place where he felt safe.

Over the next several years, Staś moved through multiple foster homes, never knowing whether kindness or cold indifference awaited him each morning. He carried a small notebook like a shield, filling it with verses of longing, resilience, and secret dreams. Two younger children in two particularly caring foster families became his first true friends; they read his hidden poems, encouraged him, and taught him that connection could feel warm rather than threatening.

When Staś was finally adopted into a stable, loving household, everything changed. Kitchens filled with laughter, routines brought comfort, and “home” at last felt real. His writing began to reflect that warmth—poems about baking bread in sunlit rooms, carefree afternoons by quiet canals, and evenings cocooned under blankets free from worry. Yet he never forgot the shadows of his past; in other pieces he still writes of sudden goodbyes and empty doorways, reminding readers that joy and loss often share the same space.

Communication comes on Staś’s terms. Some days he taps messages on a speech-generating tablet; other times he blends simple sign gestures with typed words. He prefers readers to focus on his ideas, not the devices he uses, so he rarely discusses the mechanics of his tools. Through essays and posts, he speaks passionately about human rights, European unity, and Ukraine’s fight for democracy—proving that silence isn’t weakness but a choice to speak through conviction.

Fluent in Polish, English, German, Spanish, and French, Staś treats each language like a color in a watercolor palette. A single poem might borrow a French turn of phrase for softness, pulse with Spanish rhythm for excitement, or twist into a German metaphor for depth. These multilingual touches spark small cultural journeys within each verse. His amber eyes—so vivid that people sometimes joke they must be colored contacts—remind him daily that standing out is a gift, not something to hide.

Anxiety feels to Staś like moths fluttering in his chest—restless, urgent, impossible to ignore. Rather than shy away, he names each flutter in verse, giving his fears wings on the page and watching them take flight. He doesn’t promise every poem is bright, but he shows how even the heaviest moments can yield images of hope and beauty.

When he isn’t crafting new poems, Staś dreams of writing full-length books that amplify voices too often overlooked. His journey—from early abuse and uncertain foster care to the security of a forever family—fuels his belief that every story matters. Through every line he writes, he proves that quiet can be strong, different can be beautiful, and every silent voice deserves to be heard.